reat merit of simplicity,
has, slightly altered, at length superseded among civilised nations every
other system.

PHOENIX, a bird which was fabled at the end of certain cycles of
time to immolate itself in flames, and rise renewed in youth from the
ashes. It has become the appropriate symbol of the death-birth that ever
introduces a new era in the history of the world, and is employed by
Carlyle in "Sartor" as symbol of the crisis through which the present
generation is now passing, the conflagration going on appearing nowise as
a mere conflagration, but the necessary preliminary of a new time, with
the germinating principles of which it is pregnant.

PHOENIX PARK, a magnificent public park of 2000 acres in Dublin; is
much used for military reviews; it was rendered notorious in 1882 through
the murder by the "Invincibles" of Lord Frederick Cavendish, who had just
been appointed Irish Secretary, and his subordinate, Thomas Burke.

PHONOGRAPH, an instrument invented by EDISON (q. v.) in
1877 for recording and reproducing articulate sounds of the voice in
speech or song, and to which the name of phonogram is given.

PHOTIUS, patriarch of Constantinople; was the great promoter of the
schism on the question of the procession of the Holy Ghost, between the
Eastern and the Western divisions of the Church, denying as he did, and
erasing from the creed the _FILIOQUE_ article (q. v.); _d_. 891.

PHOTOGRAVURE, a process of reproducing pictures from the negative of
a photograph on a gelatine surface with the assistance of certain
chemical preparations.

PHOTOSPHERE, name given to the luminous atmosphere enveloping the
sun.

PHOTOTYPE, a block with impressions produced by photography from
which engravings, &c., can be printed.

PHRENOLOGY claims to be a science in which the relation of the
functions of mind to the material of the brain substance is observed. It
asserts that just as speech, taste, touch, &c., have their centres in
certain convolutions of the brain, so have benevolence, firmness,
conscientiousness, &c., and that by studying the configuration of the
brain, as indicated by that of the skull, a man's character may be
approximately discovered. As a science it is usually discredited, and
held to be unsupported by physiology, anatomy, and pathology. It is held
as strongly militating against its claims that it takes no account of the
convolutions of the brain that lie on the base of the skull. Its